CHECHENS BEING EXPELLED FROM RUSSIAN REGIONS.

Ethnic Chechensare "already being deported" from Rostov and Ivanovooblasts and from Stavropol and Krasnodar krays, Moskovskienovosti (no. 51) reported. Local Cossacks have threatenedto burn them out if they do not leave voluntarily, and local officialshave also put pressure on the Chechens to leave. The Moscow papersuggested that the central Russian government may be behind someof this, believing that it will release tensions in the region,or because it provides the basis for keeping the possibility ofthe partition of Chechnya itself in reserve as a negotiating threat.But Moscow mayor Yuri Luzhkov met with Chechens living in theRussian capital August 2 to praise them for not succumbing tothe blandishments of the Chechen nationalists, Russian televisionreported August 2.

Black Sea Fleet Conflict Heats Up.